The author of one of my personal development books suggests that fear is one of the primary causes of procrastination.

And from our own personal experience we each know that not only can fear result in “putting off” doing something until a later date, it can also result in putting it off altogether and never doing it.

As such, fear can be the enemy of our self-improvement efforts.

In his landmark television series, Civilization, Sir Kenneth Clark suggests that one of the primary causes of the collapse of two of the greatest advanced ancient civilizations, the Greek and Roman empires, was fear.

Fears such as invasion by the barbarians, fear of plague or war, and fear of the supernatural.

The result in Clark’s view was a significant decrease in citizens’ confidence and energy, the two main drivers necessary for building a successful and viable civilization with staying power.

Similarly, creating a successful personal growth program for ourselves requires confidence and energy, as well as a desire, coupled with effort, to push through our fear to accomplish things.

Paradoxically, we can be in the position of starting a personal development program in part to reduce our fears but then allow our fears to impede our progress.

How come?

Seth Godin believes that one of the major reasons that we do not follow through with our new project efforts is our fear that “This might not work.”

However, the need to push through our fears, such as ‘this might not work’ is easier to say than to do.